Posted on 09/29/2014 2:39:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
To understand why revitalizing Detroit will be difficult, consider the response to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s (DWSD) recent plan to make overdue customers pay their bills. The DWSD serves more than 4 million customers across the Detroit region. The suburbs mostly buy water from the DWSD wholesale, so it’s mainly city residents and businesses who get billed directly, and over half of them—about 90,000 customers—haven’t paid up. Total past-due bills add up to nearly $90 million, with the average delinquent residential customer owing $540, or more than 7 months’ worth of service, based on an average bill of $75. No enterprise can survive if half its customers don’t pay their bills, so DWSD embarked on a program to make its customers pay or face disconnection of their service—the same requirement placed on every utility customer in America.
A constellation of the usual left-wing suspects denounced the cutoffs. The United Nations called them “an affront to human rights.” Michigan congressman John Conyers said they were “arbitrary and inhumane.” The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization defended those caught stealing water. “I’m certain if there are people who have resorted to this situation, they were forced to. They didn’t have a choice,” said Maureen Taylor, the organization’s state chairwoman. Even Detroit’s bankruptcy judge, Steven Rhodes, no left-winger, said that the “residential shutoff program has caused not only a lot of anger in the city and also a lot of hardship.” The shutoffs would disproportionately hurt minorities and the poor, these and other critics argued. But Detroit is overwhelmingly black and broadly poor, so that claim doesn’t mean much.
The critics ignore a key element of the social contract: we’re obligated to pay for the government services we consume. They also conveniently overlook numerous programs throughout the country—including several in Detroit—that help those struggling to pay their water bills. The DWSD alone has 17,000 customers enrolled in payment plans. In a city where nearly 100,000 water customers don’t pay, and where even a golf course was $438,000 in arrears, those trying to do the right thing are getting played for chumps. In May, DWSD sent out 46,000 shutoff notices but only disconnected service for 10 percent of those it notified. Of the 4,531 customers whose service was cut off, 60 percent had it restored within 24 hours, and 76 percent got their water back within 48 hours. This suggests that most customers can pay—they simply haven’t. As the Detroit News’s Nolan Finley observed, two-thirds of the city’s residents have cable or satellite TV and are presumably paying those bills. And Detroiters already stand to gain from a bankruptcy “grand bargain” that privileges residents and city retirees over out-of-town creditors. The city of Detroit—which actually generates more per-capita revenues than Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, or Minneapolis— already receives 80 percent of its taxes and revenues from corporations, nonresident landlords, and suburban commuters, which doesn’t jibe with the exploitation narrative.
The DWSD certainly could have handled things better, starting with a clean-up of its commercial accounts. About 11,000 commercial accounts were overdue when the shutoffs began. The top 40 delinquent commercial accounts alone totaled $9.5 million. Starting their collections here—along with a campaign aimed at residential customers to make sure that they knew they were next—would have made sense. And the DWSD seemed ill-equipped to process customer requests for payment plans and hardship relief. This incompetence shouldn’t be too surprising, though, since the DWSD has been a shambles for decades. The department has posted cumulative operating losses of $1.5 billion in the last seven years, even as rates more than doubled over the past decade. A 2012 independent report found that the department, which operates under onerous work rules and 257 separate job classifications, was 80 percent overstaffed, costing taxpayers an extra $134 million per year.
The city called a temporary halt to shutoffs this summer to put better procedures in place and give customers a grace period. But shutoffs have since resumed, with the total reaching 20,000. Opponents filed a motion with Judge Rhodes asking him to issue a restraining order to stop the shutoffs. A ruling is expected soon.
What Detroit’s citizens need most from their government is well-functioning public services. A water utility with 50 percent delinquencies is a reflection of a city that has failed its basic responsibilities. Fixing DWSD is but one of the many changes necessary to restore Detroit—but if city officials don’t have the stomach to collect long-overdue water bills, how will they undertake tougher reforms?
Thanks for posting this.
This is kind of amusing considering the corruption of the city’s “leaders”. The peons see that their leaders don’t follow the laws, so why should they?
Can’t they just provide free water and sewer service like every other American city? What’s wrong with them people?
I wonder how many of the delinquent households have one or more flat screen TVs.
It’s free when half of us pay for the other freeloaders “rights”.
<>As the Detroit News’s Nolan Finley observed, two-thirds of the city’s residents have cable or satellite TV and are presumably paying those bills.<>
If they gave all Detroit residents pensions then they would be able to afford water. Duh!
The reparations continue indefinitely; in a few decades we will have had affirmative action and welfare-on-demand for as long as we’ve had slavery, and still nothing is improving. A large segment of our unassimilated urban underclass has made it clear they never intend to contribute anything, and are in fact regressing - even refusing to learn to speak English.
Detroit did this to itself(themselves?).
No sympathy whatsoever. The citizens have continually voted in big, nanny government to take care of them. Now the big nanny government is past being broke and now is stuck.
Detroit, you screwed it up, you figure it out.
Would “all” be a good guess? Along with two cars, dishwashers, Apple products, name-brand clothing and shoes, gold dental appliances, tattoos, steaks in the freezer, etc.
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison for running a "money-making racket" out of city hall that steered millions to himself, his family and friends while the impoverished city hobbled along.
His father also went to jail----as a bagman for Kwame.
(In an earlier corruption incident--not related to Kwame's corruption---his mother a Democrat Congressman went to jail).
In March, Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 of 30 counts of extortion, racketeering, bribery. Prosecutors had argued he deserved stiff sentence because he never thought he did anything wrong
DETROIT — Seven months after the historic conviction of Detroit's former mayor on wide-ranging public corruption charges, Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for running what the government called a money-making racket out of City Hall.Kilpatrick had steered millions to himself, family and friends while an impoverished Detroit hobbled along, prosecutors said.
Kilpatrick, 43, was found guilty March 11 on 24 of 30 counts of corruption, including five counts of extortion, racketeering, bribery and several mail, wire and tax fraud charges. On three counts he was found not guilty, and on the remaining three no verdict was reached.
In this case, the overarching issue is that public officials are responsible to the citizenry, Edmunds said. "One thing is certain," she said. "It was the citizens of Detroit who suffered."
Edmunds said Kwame Kilpatrick took bribes, misused nonprofit funds and "used his power as mayor ... to steer an astounding amount of business (said to be some $35 million)" to his friend and co-defendant, Bobby Ferguson, who also was convicted on charges of running a racket out of the mayor's office.
Text messages and witnesses bolstered allegations that Kilpatrick's relationship with Ferguson — whom the government has called the key player in the pair's extortion scheme — was at the heart of the criminal activity. Federal prosecutors are seeking a maximum 28-year prison sentence for Ferguson.
He chose to waste his talents on personal aggrandizement and enrichment. We lost transparency. We lost accountability. Judge Nancy Edmunds, U.S. District Court said she will recommend Kilpatrick be sent to a prison in Texas, where his family lives, and told Kilpatrick that he can appeal. Restitution will be determined later, and a hearing will happen within 90 days.
The judge said Kilpatrick lived the high life, hosting lavish parties, accepting cash tributes and loading the city's payroll with friends and family.
Despite a speech in court Thursday in which the former mayor spoke in a soft voice, asked for a fair sentence and said he accepted responsibility, Edmunds said Kilpatrick largely has shown little remorse. Kilpatrick's defense team had wanted Edmunds to consider Kilpatrick's accomplishments as mayor.
"He chose to waste his talents on personal aggrandizement and enrichment," Edmunds said. "We lost transparency. We lost accountability. ... That way of business is over. We're done."
Detroit's present mayor, David Bing, echoed that sentiment. "I'm glad that this negative chapter in Detroit's history has finally come to an end," he said in a statement. "Today's sentencing sends a strong message to everyone in public office. As we move forward with Detroit's transformation, honesty, transparency, and integrity in city leadership will be paramount."
After the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said the judge sent a powerful message: "The people of Detroit will not tolerate this abuse of power."
This idiocy is consistent with what I'd expect in a city where there are occasional stories about homes on the market for $1.
about 90,000 customers—haven’t paid up.
Total past-due bills add up to nearly $90 million,
the average delinquent residential customer owing $540
Somebody’s going to write that off real soon...guess who’s going to pay????
even a golf course was $438,000 in arrears,
Of the 4,531 customers whose service was cut off:
60 percent had it restored within 24 hours.
76 percent got their water back within 48 hours.
This suggests that most customers can pay—they simply haven’t.
I wonder if they're all on the same block?
If anyone can easily get a free cell phone..why would anyone think they had to pay for water?
UI, SSI, Workmen's Comp,
TANF (temporary assistance to needy families),
WICS (food assistance),
subsidized Section 8 shelter,
ObamaPhone subsidies,
Utility Assistance subsidies,
School breakfasts/lunches/snacks subsidies,
$5000 a year EITC checks.
Using falsified apps to get EBT cards---buying non-food w/ tax dollars.
Getting sub-prime mtgs---flipping the house for a big profit---then skipping town---leaving the banks holding the bag.
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